Why The Leader Was The MCUs Biggest Hulk Missed Opportunity

Why The Leader Was The MCU’s Biggest Hulk Missed Opportunity

Tim Blake Nelson’s cerebral villain, The Leader, could have been an influential presence in the MCU after his brief appearance in The Incredible Hulk.

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Why The Leader Was The MCUs Biggest Hulk Missed Opportunity

Tim Blake Nelson’s The Leader was forgotten by the Marvel Cinematic Universe after his first appearance in The Incredible Hulk, but he could have been a very influential figure. Although it is by no means a bad MCU movie, The Incredible Hulk is widely regarded as one of the few black sheep of the MCU. It’s partly owned by another studio, it didn’t connect to the following movies as much as fans would have wanted, and most of its stars never returned for another movie — including the most interesting villain the MCU could have had, The Leader.

In The Incredible Hulk, Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) adopts the not-so-subtle alias of “Mr. Green” and seeks the help of a scientist who calls himself “Mr. Blue” in order to find a cure for his monstrous gamma-infused alter ego. After being driven back to the spotlight by the military and his obsessive father-in-law General Ross (William Hurt), Bruce Banner finally meets Mr. Blue, whose real name is Dr. Samuel Sterns. The eccentric scientist succeeds in curing Banner of his explosive duality — albeit temporarily — and accidentally receives a dose of Banner’s blood that makes his brain mutate. Aside from an anticlimactic appearance in a comic book prelude to The Avengers, Samuel Sterns never returns to fully become The Leader.

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The Leader would have been an innovative addition to the early MCU as an antagonist with purely intellectual abilities. Most of the main MCU villains have triggered large-scale final battles where the heroes need to win solely through brute force. Instead, The Leader’s gamma-powered brain would have required the Avengers to find different ways to fight a threat none of them has been prepared to face. Smart characters like Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) would have found themselves more vulnerable than ever, not to mention how closer to the rest of the characters the Hulk’s mythos would have become.

Hulk’s journey in the MCU has been limited due to Marvel’s inability to distribute a Hulk solo movie without interference from Universal. This is why all of Hulk’s arc has been tied to other Avengers and their shared foes. Hulk has been a more prominent character in the shared universe than in his own solo movies, but it has come at the price of remaining a team player. The only times the MCU’s Hulk has been a bit more independent, his rivals have been restricted to other strong characters: The Abomination in The Incredible Hulk, Tony Stark’s Hulkbuster in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) in Thor Ragnarok. A physically fragile but exceptionally intelligent antagonist would offer the perfect “brains vs. brawn” conflict that Marvel fans have never watched on the big screen.

An early introduction of the Leader in his mutated form would have also enhanced the impact of Hulk’s “Smart Hulk” transformation, which felt quite abrupt in Avengers Endgame. The Leader could have forged an allegiance with Bruce Banner to merge his two identities (which would have mirrored his role in The Incredible Hulk), or he could have created the cure accidentally for Banner to find after his defeat, or the battle between the two in The Incredible Hulk 2 could have at least foreshadowed Smart Hulk through the thematic clash of intelligence against brute force.

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Besides, Tim Blake Nelson is a perfect acting choice for The Leader. Movies like O Brother Where Art Thou and Just Mercy reveal his impressive acting range and his performance as Looking Glass in HBO’s Watchmen reflects how he can portray an intimidating comic book character without super strength. Thankfully, The Leader has higher chances to return now that Marvel may bring back characters from The Incredible Hulk for Falcon and The Winter Soldier. For now, The Leader remains one of the biggest missed opportunities in the MCU.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/hulk-mcu-leader-missed-opportunity-why/

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